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Vietnam Detains Man For ‘Anti-State Plot’
Vo Viet Dzien, a 41-year-old fish farmer, was taken into custody in southern Vietnam after police “uncovered his involvement” with the US--based Restoration Party, a banned pro-democracy group, the VNExpress news website reported. The little-known organization was plotting to “undermine national unity” by jamming radio frequencies and broadcasting anti--state messages on April 30, the report said, citing investigators at the Ministry of Public Security. The date marks the fall of Saigon and the southern regime in 1975, an event which forced the United States to pull its combat troops out of the country, heralding the end of a decades-long conflict. Rights campaigners say the accusation that a group is conspiring to overthrow the state is regularly used to silence dissidents in authoritarian Vietnam, where the communist party limits political debate. Dzien was tasked with distributing anti-state leaflets and causing unrest in specific Chinese-Vietnamese communities in southern Binh Duong province, the report said. The exact date of his arrest was not specified. According to investigators, Dzien had received training, instructions and cash from the Restoration Party, which was set up in 1978 in Los Angeles by officials from the former Saigon regime, the report said. The group cooperated with other overseas Vietnamese movements to establish the “National Force for Country Rescue”, which aimed to “defame and eliminate the leading role of the Vietnamese Communist Party and overthrow the state”, the report said. Early this month, Vietnamese prosecutors accused 18 members of a little-known “reactionary” group of the same charge, which in theory carries the death penalty. In January, New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Vietnam “intensified its repression” of dissidents last year, jailing dozens of bloggers, peaceful political and religious advocates and land rights activists.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |